Broadband provision - Slow response putting us out of the game

AS THE remnants of Europe’s once great manufacturing industries struggle to remain competitive in the face of unavoidable challenges from low-cost economies we need to know that we have some prospect of sustaining employment for a significant number of people.

We have hitched our wagon to two principal ideas: retraining and creating a knowledge-based economy. Retraining in an age when the defining characteristic is change has become everyday and the very barest minimum needed to stay in the game.

Being part of “knowledge-based economy” has a comforting, zeitgeist appeal; it sounds good but can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. For policy purposes it can be vague, flexible and all-embracing. It is an-easy-to-sell idea, but requires a commitment that presents challenges in cultural, infrastructural and educational provision that we have yet to meet.